WASHINGTON:
The US State Department will use artificial intelligence to revoke visas of foreign students who it perceives as supporters of Palestinian Hamas militants, Axios reported on Thursday, citing senior State Department officials.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January to combat antisemitism and has pledged to deport non-citizen college students and others who took part in pro-Palestinian protests that have been ongoing for months amid Israel’s military assault on Gaza after Hamas’ October 2023 attack.
The AI-fueled “Catch and Revoke” effort will include AI-assisted reviews of tens of thousands of student visa holders’ social media accounts, Axios reported.
Axios said officials were checking news reports of demonstrations against Israel’s policies and Jewish students’ lawsuits highlighting foreign nationals allegedly engaging in antisemitism.
Some pro-Palestinian groups are Jewish themselves and many protesters have denounced antisemitism and Hamas. However, there have been incidents of antisemitism and Islamophobia in pro-Palestinian protests and pro-Israeli counter-protests.
The State Department was working with the departments of Justice and Homeland Security, according to Axios.
The three departments had no immediate comment.
Trump has said he will stop federal funding for educational institutions that allow what he called illegal protests.
“Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or .. arrested,” Trump said on Tuesday.
The U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment protects freedom of speech and assembly. Rights advocates have condemned Trump’s rhetoric towards protesters.
Washington has designated Hamas as a “foreign terrorist organization.”
The Islamist group’s October 7, 2023 attack killed 1,200 people, with over 250 taken as hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s subsequent military assault on Gaza has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza authorities. It has internally displaced nearly everyone there and led to accusations of genocide and war crimes that Israel denies.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)